Move to raise number of agriculture researchers for Africa gathers steam

23 April 2010, Afrique en ligne
URL: http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/move-to-raise-number-of-agric-researchers-for-africa-gathers-steam-2010042148061.html

Lagos:  As Africa steps up efforts to increase the number of agr icultural researchers as part of overall measures to ensure food sufficiency, seven agricultural PhD candidates sponsored by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) graduated this week from an advanced studies programme in plant breeding at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

According to an AGRA statement obtained by PANA here Tuesday, the students came from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, and carried out their research under the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI).

AGRA said the students fulfilled a rigorous five-year study and research period, including two years of academic studies at UKZN, followed by three years of field research in their home countries. During that time, they were ful ly trained with advanced knowledge in: Plant Breeding, Biometry, Genetics, Biotechnology and Plant Pathology, as well as scientific communication and project management skills.

'Accelerated agricultural growth is essential for alleviating poverty and reducing hunger for millions of rural people on the continent. The ACCI programme empowers the future generation of plant scientists to tackle one of Africa's most serious problems: how to create high-yielding, locally-adapted varieties of the important food crop,' said Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA.

The ACCI programme is a critical piece of AGRA's broad range of work to improve agricultural production for Africa's smallholder farmers, and it hopes to fill gaps left by the 'brain drain' of African researchers leaving the co ntinent and by the paucity of training opportunities in Africa for its scientists.

The programme requires students to conduct field research in their home countries so that after graduation they can apply their academic knowledge in their home environment with local resources.

According to figures provided by AGRA, the number of agricultural researchers de clined by half in sub-Saharan Africa in the last 20 years due to lack of funding for agricultural education, and more than half of agricultural scientists in active service are due to retire within the next five years.

In 2007, AGRA pledged its support by investing US$8.1 million in the ACCI programme to increase the number of agricultural scientists in Africa. The programme is currently scheduled to train 84 PhD students.

To ensure the students are supported after graduation, AGRA has committed to funding the students' research programmes so they can sustain their plant breeding projects, and ensure that they deliver new crop varieties to farmers, a process that takes five to 20 years.

Ms. Kiddo Mtunda from Tanzania, one of this year's graduates, is enthusiastic about the value of the programme's approach.

'It's important to train Africans in Africa on the local crops, because we learn in our local environment,' she said. 'After finishing, we remain here to help the farmers.'

AGRA said the work of previous ACCI graduates had already had a significant impact in communities in southern and eastern Africa, where the graduates have deliv e red new crop cultivars, improved the skills of plant breeders, and raised the status of plant breeders and scientists at research stations and government agencies.

For example, it said, Dr. Joseph Kamau has registered 21 cassava varieties for the semi-arid regions of Kenya; Dr. David Mariote has released two maize hybrids i n Mozambique; Dr. Andrew Efisue has delivered new Nerica rice cultivars in Nigeria; and Dr. Ph ilip Kwena, Dr. Theresia Munga, and Dr. Crispus Oduor are poised to register new cultivars of maize, cassava and finger millet in Kenya. The plant breeding of Dr. Martin Orawu and Dr. Stanley Nkalubo in Uganda on cowpea and dryland beans is at the final stage before release, where farmers assist in selecting the best varieties.

Lagos